[markl]

You may remeber him from the song "Werewolves of Londion". Word is, he's seriously ill with cancer and will not recover.

His recent album "Life'll Kill Ya", a return to form and a textbook example of great songwriting, included the track "My ****'s ****ed Up" which detailed a bout with an unspecified illness. Turns out he was in fact writing about his own life and experience. What a shame. He will be missed.

markl

 

[MacDEF]

That's really, really sad

He's one of those guys everyone has heard of, and so many people consider him an "influence" on their music, but most people couldn't name one of his songs. I actually knew his son when I lived in LA; wish I still had his number so I could drop him a message

 

[rickfri]

Sad news, indeed. When he first started recording a reviewer said Zevon wrote 4 minute symphonies. I think if you listen to "Mohammed's Radio" or "Desperados Under the Eaves" you'll agree. Hopefully, his anthem of "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" has been true for him.

 

[Calanctus]

Here's what Zevon himself had to say:
Quote:

"I'm OK with it, but it'll be a drag if I don't make it 'till the next James Bond movie comes out," Zevon, 55, joked in a statement

He's spending time with his grown children now. Sounds like he's really on an even keel, despite this terrible thing.

 

[Mr.PD]

I didn't know there was a latest release. I will have to get that one. After reading this I had to play Mohammed's Radio, yes this is good stuff. But I like Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner better, but it's a folk song not a symphony. One of my all time favorite songs is by Warren Zevon, it's Lawyers Guns and Money. I love that song.

 

[JohnActon]

Someone told me about this yesterday. I was hoping it was all crap. I'm sorry to hear that it's true.

I don't know a lot about Zevon's music, but what I do know I like. He seems like a brilliant songwriter, both musically and lyrically. The music world will be losing one of its best with his passing.

Maybe he'll find a way to pull through.

 

[AngusMcToon]

Actually, Warren's latest is "My Ride's Here." which came out a few months back. Life'll Kill Ya preceded that by a year.

I too am sorry to hear he's ill. He's pretty uneven as a songwriter, but when he's good he's geat. His live disk, (is it Learning to Flinch?) is a great great record...just him and a 12 string. Great versions of many great tunes. Always loved his cover of "A Certain Girl" too.

Sigh.

 

[markl]

This from RollingStone:

VH1 is filming Warren Zevon's recording sessions for his final album for a one-hour documentary. Zevon was diagnosed late this summer with inoperable cancer in both lungs, and his doctors give him only weeks to live.

Guests on the album include Don Henley and Bob Dylan, who has been playing Zevon songs on his current tour. Despite this being Zevon's final album, his goal remains the same: "Make people look," Zevon told Rolling Stone, quoting one of his favorite novelists Joseph Conrad. "There might be a song or two on the more sensitive side, and there might be a long lost love song, but there's also some raucous, some mischievous and a few tasteless ideas. Sometimes it seems to come along by great leaps, and then it slows down like they always do."

After receiving his prognosis, Zevon joked about looking forward to being a self-pitying, bedridden invalid, but in recent weeks he's kept busy, catching Dylan's show in Los Angeles and planning an October 30th appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman in New York. The entire show will be dedicated to Zevon, and he will play live, a performance including "Genius," the title track from the recently released greatest hits collection. Zevon's been a frequent guest on Letterman's show over the years, and once led the band when Paul Shaffer was on vacation. Letterman also appeared on Zevon's 2002 album, My Ride's Here, shouting the phrase "hit somebody" during the chorus of "The Hockey Song."

With his last two albums, My Ride's Here and 2000's Life'll Kill Ya," Zevon explored sickness and death in his usual wry fashion, an attitude he's maintained even as his ideas about death have been jolted out of the abstract.

"The reason I put the skull with my glasses on every album is because it reminds me not to take myself seriously," Zevon said. "Most people do take themselves seriously in this job, but so as long as I have that skull wearing my glasses beaming back at me from my luggage tags and ****, it tends to remind me before it's too late, that I better lighten up a little bit."

Mark